That's life
by Flareose - Knifepoint Entry
Summary: What do you do when time moves forward and you're still stuck in the past? Your friends are moving forward, showing that they're ready for the next step in their life, time is moving forward meaning it won't wait for you... And yet, you feel change is scary. Amy Rose couldn't tell you what to do, because she was living in that situation right now.


_"Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future." _

_― Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close_

* * *

**That's life**

**Chapter One: Afraid of change**

* * *

**_Monday _**

**_12/13. Four-thirty a.m; Station Square_**

The air was crisp as snowflakes rain'd down gently in Station Square, leaving fog on windows, or would soon make goosebumps rise on even the most winter-geared of people going out soon in the cold weather.

The few said unlucky people being awake at a time like this; who'd have to face the outside head on with goosebumps rising and all, were people going to work in a few minutes and just trying to get one last cup of coffee in before the start of hours upon hours of work, or were unlucky students groaning at unfinished projects for school.

Even with the feet tapping against the floor in hard clicks, as workers would look at their watch only to look back at their coffee machine in anger, and the curses echoing off the walls as papers was thrown all about in search of other papers for the right class, it was relatively a morning of silence.

The silence however was daunting for one, and was un-welcomed in her home even if now she didn't do particularly anything about it.

She could have turned the television on and find a channel to get hooked to for the story or characters, she supposed, or call up her best bud to annoy her to know end; who she knew at this point in time the young rabbit would be finishing up some project for school.

But she had decided against these options the minute she thought of them.

The cheery pink hedgehog's motto had always been finding a positive outlook on life - from spending time with friends or chasing her hero Sonic around - who in tern would look on in horror to find that his number one fan and friend had only gotten faster, to facing down a new foe or ruining one of Robotnik's schemes.

The good bad and all in between was fine to her... As long as she could find times in between to relax and enjoy the company she was given.

So... Given her personality she normally didn't do such things as this, such as - being inside of her bedroom right now, sitting on the edge of her twin sized bed in the left winged corner, with hands placed at her side, and her eyes glued to her feet that were dangling off the edge.

She was rather annoyed right now with the way she was acting, but her fears... Those fears that she shook from her mind and put in a box underneath the bed like a dirty secret were surfacing.

So it was there, sitting on the edge of the bed that Amy pondered.

Maybe it was the way days seemed to have been moving quicker, or the way Robotnik's schemes for his empire would slowly lessen as those said days seemed to tick by.

However his empire wasn't the only thing that began to lessen... In the end, the once freedom fighters began to see less of the egg shaped scientist as well.

Once she had imagined a theme park that the egg shaped man would call Eggman land; fielded with multicolored lights seen from a beautiful scenery from up top one of it's many skyscrapers, with having amusement park like rides - if you could leave out all the many badniks and E-series robots from attacking you on the marble like floor, the bumper cars, gyro tower and the ferris wheels.

Up top of that last floor her friends would run, only to see the one behind it all from whatever scheme he was trying to pull this time. Sonic would make some snarky remark about the scientist, and Robotnik would turn around all the while looking as innocent as possible, or having steam coming from his ears as his face would turn scarlet in rage.

It depended on what Sonic's snide remark would be really.

Afterwards the blue hedgehog would beat Robotnik all the while his friends cheering him on from the sidelines, before the mad scientist would escape somehow showing that even if this was just a temporally base that they had caught him in, he still had escape methods for it.

Then they were left to either destroy the base entirely or extract data from it to use against doctor the next time they say him.

That's at least what she would imagined anyway, because things dealing with Robotnik had always been the same for their group of freedom fighters. She could think to herself right now, that it was just another way of saying _why fix something that isn't broken?_

But then she secretly knew the why's and how's about fixing something that isn't broken, she just couldn't admit it to herself.

One of the few times that they did see Robotnik face to face however after one of his absences, was inside one of his many bases across the globe.

Sally had gotten a transmission from one of the side freedom fighters group, saying there has been strange activity going around in the west part of where their camp was stationed. So she gave them the mission of checking it out for further details.

It had started off the same like before, except with a different setting from the once neon amusement park theme in a greenery field to a metal like orb located near a snowy plain. The place had been littered with egg pawns and swatbots showing that this was one of the doctor's main bases and that it was highly likely they'd meet the man here.

Like once before they had reached the top of those last floors again, and had indeed seen the one behind it all from whatever scheme he was trying to pull this time... But something was wrong.

Had the doctor always looked that frail from before, panting as his face wasn't a scarlet from anger but a grayish purple instead?

Had the evil man always coughed while placing his hand over his heart as if it hurt to just breath?

Had he always looked... Like this?

She had imagined the goofy villain from once before in a amusement park like setting, laughing that unique laugh that reminded her of Santa... To this person standing before her now.

For a second she had forgotten this was her enemy and had taken a small step forward, only for Sonic to put his hand in front of her to stop. For once the blue hedgehog looked serious, no snide remarks to be made.

Robotnik had straightened his bent posture from before and stopped coughing, looking at them with a crooked smile. His posture spoke of one being a proud figure, but for a second Amy felt pity for the man.

Things would continue like before, except being with a slower pace then from years back.

Huh...

That was odd, she could barely tell that years had past in that time when they saw the doctor like that.

Had Cream always looked older, going on less missions and signing up for the junior high-school that had been built during the doctor's many absences?

As shocking as that had been to see, you could also say she felt a wave of change on the horizon from seeing just that.

She felt almost... Giddy in a sense with a proud complexion that other freedom fighters who had died with this dream in mind of seeing, had not been in vain. That there was that silver lining still in the sky, showing to never give up, never surrender.

She in the end saw less of the rabbit however, either from chasing after Sonic or the few missions she was called in to do. Knowing that the freedom fighters dream were in motion, she wouldn't lie and say that she didn't hope Sonic wouldn't notice her a little more.

Just a little per se.

That image of them dating or having a wedding never stayed off of her mind, and before she knew it months had began to pass with that thought in mind.

Though Cream wasn't the only one that began to grow, so had Tails.

The genius eight year old had become more serious over the years, and had devised plans of his own to stop Robotnik or Snively - now that the man cut ties from the doctor and started working on his own devices. Sonic wasn't too keen about his best friend taking matters into his own hands, and had spoken to Tails about it over a meeting that they held, only for Tails to glower at him in a rare trace of rebellion and had told him he knew what he was doing.

That had been a rather rare argument that accord between the two, and it wouldn't stop there either. Tails's plans had become more of a great asset to the team, thanks to his brilliance of mind and the fact of his workshops were across the globe.

Yes in fact he normally built and stationed workshops near other freedom fighters H.Q, and even one near Central City for G.U.N and Team Dark to report in with anything that seemed amiss.

Having a workshop in Emerald Town, Mystic Ruins, Water Palace and one in Coca Island near his house, he could better surveillance the areas Robotnik was or could be. This also put a calm on Nicole who in the past worked double the effort in tracking down or watching where the doctor was.

The arguments however didn't stop for Sonic and Tails... They only seemed to be distancing themselves even further the more they saw of eachother. Tails was growing up, and spoke his mind more on strategies they would do, or issues concerning the governing system for future cities and H.Q's they would build when and where.

He spoke once to her... Saying that while he was a child he felt like he was in Sonic's shadow. He didn't mind in the past since he felt the hedgehog was like an older brother to him, but now, now that he was older he wanted to find his own way. Sonic was just someone who was in that way to him.

Amy had been shocked to hear such things, and didn't know quite what to say to the boy- no, young man who now was almost as tall as her.

... Had time really moved that fast from before?

Where was that little boy who followed Sonic around and had so much hope and awed eyes for the blue hero?

Who was this young man looking at her now with blue eyes as cold as steel, who saw the world not as Sonic did from an idealistic point of view, but a more realistic point?

Both Cream and Tails... Even Charmy in some points of view changed.

It... Made her realize a bit that time was moving forward.

However just a bit, just a bit did it do this.

What really made her see however, that the world was beginning to move forward was from an unexpected surprise.

She was visiting; after a long period of time her best bud Cream in Spagonia, which she and her mother moved to since it was relatively peaceful there, and since the junior high-school was located there as well.

There as she was walking up the steps and saw the house in view, she saw something unexpected.

There he stood, the Ultimate Lifeform himself; Shadow the hedgehog with a boca of flowers in one hand while he rang the doorbell with the other.

He looked stiff as a board, but then so did she as she watched from afar with eyes widened.

When Vanilla opened the door with that kind smile that seemed to melt a heart of ice, Amy could have sworn from this distance that she saw a faint blush on the Ultimate Lifeform's face when he handed her the flowers.

The rabbit only seemed to glow more from the setting sun when she let the hedgehog in the door after taking them.

Amy didn't go to Cream's house that day, and just went to her apartment in Station Square.

She felt strangely empty inside, from knowing that... This was happening.

She stopped chasing after the blue hedgehog because she started seeing less and less of him...

And Sonic started taking on more missions for the freedom fighters and citizens of the world, becoming like an iconic super hero or something of the sort.

Amy stopped doing missions little by little, and that's why she was here in her apartment right now.

So many things had changed she felt she needed a break from it all. She felt as if she was still living in the past, and was just waiting for a six year old Cream to knock on her door for a get together with the freedom fighters.

She barely missed the fact that her quills grew out over that time, or that her dress was a little tight on her these days from growing an inch or two... She could barely tell anymore.

When she went to do some cleaning up the other day she found a box in her closet filled up with her old tarot cards, that she use in spells before she met Sonic, or better yet only used them afterwards to find Sonic. They were now collecting dust with a few cobwebs on them, being nearly forgotten and quite frankly unwanted.

Why did this happen...

But then again she secretly knew the why's and how's about why this was happening.

She just wasn't used to changes.

Never had, probably never would be.

That's why Amy got off her bed and headed to her closet now. She opened the door and placed her hand on a metal like surface, feeling the cobwebs again just like the other day. She grabbed the item that she picked and pulled it out showing that it was an extreme gear of sorts, what she deemed and called the Pink Rose.

Taking a slight shower before getting dressed in her extreme gear outfit, she left her apartment at the time of five-fifteen in the morning.

It was truly pity she supposed.

Truly it was.

She didn't even feel the cold wind biting at her arms, making goosebumps rise because of it.

You could say... That she was trying to live back her glory days.


End file.
